Assessment of Common Oral and Dental Diseases among Pregnant Women at Dhaka City in Bangladesh

Abstract:

BACKGROUND:
Globally, the oral health care for pregnant women is inadequate relating to
education and health promotion sectors along with disparities in socio-economy
and ethnicity. Neglected oral care often has long-term effects on our overall
health, including the health of the baby during pregnancy. Serious problems
like gingivitis and periodontal disease may also occur during this period as a
result of neglected oral hygiene.

OBJECTIVE:
This descriptive type of cross sectional study was carried out to assess the
pattern of common oral and dental diseases among pregnant women.

MATERIALS
AND METHODS: A total 147 pregnant women attended at
the selected hospital and healthcare centre of Dhaka city for routine checkup
over a period of five months from September 2013 to January 2014 fulfilled the
eligibility criteria were selected consecutively. Pre­tested semi structured
interviewer administrated questionnaires were used to collect the information.

RESULTS:
The study shows that most of the pregnant women (72%) age
ranged from 20-24 years. Also, majority (88%) of them were housewives while
only 11% were service holders with monthly family income of BDT≤10000
of more than half of the respondents (52%). Oral complaints
found from the study were bleeding gums (78%), sensitive tooth (52%) and
cavities (35%) respectively. In addition, 63% never access to their dentists
throughout their whole life and only 6% visited their dentists at the time of
pregnancy. Lastly, the frequency of oral diseases revealed in this study was
gingivitis (100%), dental caries (54%), dental erosion (52%), periodontitis
(27%) and apthous ulcer (16%) respectively.

CONCLUSION:
It can be said from the study that educational and
occupational statuses of pregnant women in Bangladesh were not satisfactory. An
extensive number of pregnant women did not seek oral health care during
pregnancy. There is a need for further study on oral health status of the
pregnant women to formulate appropriate oral health guidelines for better oral
and dental health outcome.